Canada’s Struggle with
Illegal Entry on Its West Coast:
The Case of Fred Yoshy and Japanese
Migrants before the Second World War
James D. Cameron
INTRODUCTION
On  July , at the Merritt Sawmill in British Columbia’s interior,
rcmp inspector L.J. Sampson picked up two Japanese labourers for
questioning. Inspector Sampson needed to know if the nervous brothers,
Katsuzo and Kimatsu Suzuki, were legally resident in Canada. In their
statement to the police, the brothers admitted that “they had entered
Canada illegally through the connivance of Maruyama and [Fred]
Yoshy.”1 In the early s each had obtained, for a fee, Canadian
naturalization certificates from a man in Yokohama, Japan. For another
fee, Mr. Maruyama, an employee of the British Consulate, had sold
them visas and then booked passages for the brothers, under their new
false identification, on the Canadian Pacific Railway steamship line.
On the final leg of their journey between Victoria and Vancouver, Fred
Yoshy, the Vancouver Immigration Branch Japanese interpreter, took
their fraudulent naturalization certificates and gave them the address
of a boarding house in Vancouver, also for a fee. Having successfully
reached their BC destination, the brothers quickly found work and
established new lives for themselves. One married a Canadian-born
Japanese woman, and the other brought his wife and child over from
Japan.
The illegal entry of the Suzuki brothers was not an isolated incident.
Fred Yoshy (Saburo Yoshiye), who had been the Japanese interpreter
in Vancouver since , had for years been smuggling Japanese into
British Columbia, probably in collaboration with one or more Canadian
immigration officials. A police investigation revealed that the numbers
1
See Fred Yoshy: Securing False Birth Certificates for the Use of Japanese Immigrants,  July
, rg , Immigration, vol. , file , reel ,, Archives Canada (ac).
bc studies, no. , Summer 
37
38
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were large. In fact, they were so large (perhaps over ,), 2 and white
hostility to the Japanese was so ingrained, that the Immigration
Branch, with the assistance of the rcmp, decided to investigate Japanese
communities throughout British Columbia in order to track down
and deport the illegal entrants.3 The public disclosure of the Yoshy
smuggling scheme in , combined with Japan’s militant imperialism
in the Pacific region and deeply held anti-Japanese sentiment in British
Columbia, helped to fuel intermittent allegations of clandestine entry
throughout the s. The unfortunate result for the vulnerable Japanese
immigrant community was a vigorous government investigation and
close scrutiny from  to , and again in .
The existing literature on Canadian immigration history includes little
about illegal entry,4 such as the Yoshy scheme, and for understandable
reasons. It is a problematic area of historical research. Most illegal
immigrants never got caught, so the existing documentation is scant
and offers a misleading guide to the extent of the activity. With
regard to the pre-Second World War era, most participants have
2
3
4
An estimate of the Board of Review Report,  December , rg , External Affairs, series
a-, vol. , file , reel t -, ac.
This paper follows the definitions related to illegal migration given by the United Nations
Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air (N.p.: The United Nations,
), . Human smuggling “shall mean the procurement, in order to obtain, directly or
indirectly, a financial or other material benefit, of the illegal entry of a person into a State
Party of which the person is not a national or permanent resident.” Illegal entry “shall mean
crossing borders without complying with the necessary requirements for legal entry into the
receiving State.”
The small body of literature on illegal migration has mostly been written by sociologists
who examine contemporary themes, such as media discourse on incidents of illegal entry.
Other topics include experiences of illegal immigrants, the number of illegal immigrants
in Canada, recent human smuggling schemes and law enforcement, procedural justice for
apprehended illegals, and government amnesties. For examples, see Joshua L. Greenberg,
“Opinion Discourse and the Canadian Newspapers: The Case of the Chinese ‘Boat People,’”
Canadian Journal of Communication ,  ():  -; Sean P. Hier and Joshua L. Greenberg,
“Crisis, Mobilization and Collective Problematization: ‘Illegal’ Chinese Migrants and the
Canadian News Media,” Journalism Studies ,  (): -; Sean P. Hier and Joshua L.
Greenberg, “Constructing a Discursive Crisis: Risk, Problematization and Illegal Chinese
in Canada,” Ethnic and Racial Studies ,  ():  -; Grace M. Anderson, Illegal
Immigration: A Sociologically Unexplored Field (Waterloo: Department of Sociology and
Anthropology, Waterloo Lutheran University, ); W.G. Robinson, “Illegal Immigrants
in Canada: Recent Developments,” International Migration Review ,  (): -; Kenneth
Yates, “Canada’s Growing Role as a Human Smuggling Destination and Corridor to the
United States,” in Human Smuggling: Chinese Migrant Trafficking and the Challenge to America’s
Immigration Tradition, ed. Paul J. Smith (Washington, DC: The Centre for Strategic and
International Studies, ),  - ; Patrick Glenn, Strangers at the Gate: Refugees, Illegal
Entrants and Procedural Justice (Montreal: Les Editions Yvon Blais Inc., ); and David
S. North, Amnesty: Conferring Legal Status on Illegal Immigrants – The Canadian Experience,
the Western European Experience, and a Proposal to Study Its Possible Consequences in the US
(Washington, DC: Center for Labor and Migration Studies, ).
Canada’s Struggle with Illegal Entry
39
died, thus first-hand oral accounts are unavailable. Furthermore, for
obvious reasons any ethnic group associated with a past high-profile
illegal entry scam – the kind that do get partially documented – can
hardly be expected to preserve and to celebrate its memory. And,
given Canada’s official doctrine of multiculturalism and the pervasive
pro-immigration, pluralist convictions of its social scientists, nongovernmental organizations, immigration lawyers, and rights advocates,
there exists a general tendency to repress the topic “for fear of inflaming
anti-immigrant sentiment.”5
Such policies and sentiments befit a major immigrant-receiving nation
with a prudent concern to promote intergroup harmony. However, they
have combined to distort our often celebrated memory of Canadian
immigration history, for illegal entry has a long tradition in Canada.
Noteworthy incidents, other than the Yoshy scheme during the s,
include violations between  and  of the restrictive Chinese
Immigration Act,6 especially the frauds at Vancouver investigated by a
royal commission in ;7 the fraudulent entry of Nazi war criminals
after the Second World War; 8 an international scheme centred in
Hong Kong that brought thousands of Chinese into Canada during
the s;9 deserting sailors, especially Greeks, during the s;10 a mass
of fraudulent inland refugee claims made between  and ;11 the
small groups of Sri Lankan Tamils and Sikhs who landed on Canada’s
Atlantic coast in the mid-s;12 and, finally, the  Chinese “boat
people” who were intercepted off British Columbia’s coast in .13
A historical review of major incidents of illegal entry into Canada
reveals that its Pacific coast has been the most contested border, the one
where the issue of control has been most challenging and controversial.
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Norman Buchignani and Doreen Indra, “Vanishing Acts: Illegal Immigration in Canada as
a Sometime Social Issue,” in Illegal Immigration in American: A Reference Handbook, ed. David
W. Haines and Karen E. Rosenblum (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, ), n.
James D. Cameron, “Creating Illegal Immigration: The Chinese Immigration Act of 
and Subsequent Revisions to ,” presented at the BC Studies Conference,  May ,
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.
Justice Murphy, Commission to Investigate Alleged Chinese Frauds, 1910 -1911 (Ottawa:
Government Printing Bureau, ).
Howard Margolian, Unauthorized Entry: The Truth about Nazi War Criminals in Canada,
1946-1956 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, ).
Ninette Kelley and Michael Trebilcock, The Making of the Mosaic: A History of Canadian
Immigration Policy (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, ), .
Ibid., .
Ibid.,  - .
Ibid., .
Joshua L. Greenberg, “Opinion Discourse and the Canadian Newspapers: The Case of the
Chinese ‘Boat People,’” Canadian Journal of Communication ,  ():  -.
40
bc studies
During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries this coast became
more easily accessible to highly populous countries (such as India, China,
and Japan) just when they were experiencing serious economic troubles,
huge population increases, and land shortages. For young Asian men,
North America’s west coast economies offered the promise of financial
advancement, so the lure to cross the Pacific was strong. However, these
were the very people whom many North Americans of European lineage
wanted to keep out, and they devised means to do so – head taxes,
continuous journey regulations, gentlemen’s agreements, and outright
exclusion acts. Consequently, the combination of Asians anxious to enter
and white Europeans determined to exclude them led some Chinese,
Japanese, and East Indian Sikhs to disregard immigration laws that
they viewed as unjust. The situation was ripe for exploitation and
quickly attracted a small number of unscrupulous whites and Asians,
such as Fred Yoshy, who were anxious to profit personally by hatching
clandestine schemes involving fraud and human smuggling.
Since Yoshy was eventually nabbed by the authorities, his human
smuggling scheme was partially documented. Thus the historian can
use the extant documents to open a window on illegal entry on the
Pacific coast before the Second World War. However, the caveats noted
above apply: the sources are incomplete, the Japanese community had
no reasons to preserve this disconcerting dimension of its immigration
past, and the participants – the Issei (the Japanese immigrants born in
Japan) and the Canadian immigration officials – have died. Nonetheless,
according to Patricia Roy, illegal Japanese migration, real or rumoured,
“became part of the anti-Japanese mythology of the province.”14 Thus it
is worth trying to divine its origins, extent, persistence, and impact on
both whites and Japanese. The first task is to briefly trace the origins
and early experience of Japanese immigrants on the west coast.
THE ORIGINS OF BC JAPANESE
The Census of 1901 recorded , Japanese in Canada; almost all
lived in British Columbia. They had starting coming to the province
during the late s after several trans-Pacific steamship lines had
been established.15 While many passed through to the United States,
14
15
Hilda Glynn-Ward with introduction by Patricia E. Roy, The Writing on the Wall (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, ), xix.
See Table  in Patricia Roy, J.L. Granatstein, Masako Iino, and Hiroko Takamura, Mutual
Hostages: Canadians and Japanese during the Second World War (Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, ), .
Canada’s Struggle with Illegal Entry
41
many others stayed and formed the first-generation Japanese immigrant
community. Japan had repealed its centuries-old emigration prohibition
in the mid-nineteenth century, and Japanese thereafter migrated to
Hawaii, North America, Peru, and Brazil.16 Those who left for British
Columbia – mainly young single males – were from the poor farming
and fishing villages located in the densely populated prefectures of
Wakayama, Shiga, Kagoshima, and Hiroshima in the south of Japan.
Land reform and heavy agricultural taxes forced almost  percent of
all Japanese farmers into tenancy by . Moreover, rapid population
increases, low incomes, and “a flair for adventure” also made overseas
migration attractive.17 In rapidly developing British Columbia, the
Japanese found work in the fishery, logging and mining industries,
railway construction, domestic service, small businesses, and farming
in such districts as the Fraser Valley.18 Ken Adachi observes that “the
early immigrants demonstrated an astonishingly high rate of mobility,
occupational as well as geographic, spending years without definite
occupations, shifting from job to job, place to place.”19 To protect the
interests of its overseas nationals and “to aid the establishment of a
sound commercial understanding between Canada and Japan,”20 the
Japanese government opened a consulate in Vancouver in  and
another in Ottawa in . The consuls served crucial symbolic,
emotional, and practical roles for the overseas Japanese. They were
a critical link with the old country, and they provided important
documentation on immigration, residency, and family matters. 21 In 
the newcomers themselves formed the Japanese Canadian Association,
which maintained close links with the consulate and tried to represent
the interests of the immigrant population. 22
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Dirk Hoerder, Cultures in Contact: World Migrations in the Second Millennium (Durham and
London: Duke University Press, ), - .
Ken Adachi, The Enemy That Never Was: A History of the Japanese Canadians (Toronto:
McClelland and Stewart, ),  and ; Gordon G. Nakayama, Issei: Stories of Japanese
Canadian Pioneers (Toronto: New Canadian Press, ); and Midge Ayukawa, “Good Wives
and Wise Mothers: Japanese Picture Brides in Early Twentieth-Century British Columbia,”
in Rethinking Canada: The Promise of Women’s History, rd ed., ed. Veronica Strong-Boag and
Anita Clair Fellman (Toronto: Oxford University Press, ), .
Canada, “Report of the Royal Commission to Investigate Chinese and Japanese
Immigration into British Columbia,” Sessional Papers, , no. , pp.  - ; and Anne
Dore, “Transnational Communities: Japanese Canadians of the Fraser Valley, -,”
BC Studies  (Summer ): - .
Adachi, The Enemy That Never Was, .
Vancouver Daily World,  June ; and Tosh Tanaka, Hands across the Pacific: Japan in British
Columbia, 1889-1989 (Vancouver: Consulate General of Japan, ).
Roy et al., Mutual Hostages, .
Adachi, The Enemy That Never Was, .
42
bc studies
The white response to the incursion of the Japanese into British
Columbia soon became hostile. There was already marked hostility
towards the Chinese, who had been arriving since the gold rush of
. While some BC employers found the Asians an attractive source
of cheap labour, white workers and other classes were provoked by
their economic competitiveness, racial difference, and alleged threat
to the white future of the province and country. 23 The BC legislature
disenfranchised the Japanese in  and passed a series of laws
– frequently vetoed by the federal government – to block their entrance
and to restrict their employment. 24 In  a federal act tried to restrict
Chinese immigration by imposing a fifty-dollar head tax on all Chinese
labourers who sought entry; in  BC MPs tried unsuccessfully to have
this legislation extended to the Japanese. The public outcry over large
numbers of Japanese and Chinese entering the province after , and
especially in  (when close to , Japanese arrived), convinced
the federal government to examine their status in British Columbia
through a royal commission investigation.25 The commission, reporting
in , recommended a substantially higher head tax on the Chinese
and discussions with Japan to ensure that the embargo it had voluntarily
placed on emigration to Canada in  remained in force. 26 If it did
not remain in force, the commissioners recommended that Canada
impose a language test to limit Japanese immigration. 27 The Liberal
prime minister, Wilfrid Laurier, refused to implement any restrictions
against Japanese immigration; he hoped to maintain friendly relations
in order to encourage trade with that rapidly industrializing nation. 28
23
24
25
26
27
28
See Patricia Roy, A White Man’s Province: British Columbia Politicians and Chinese and Japanese
Immigrants, 1858-1914 (Vancouver: UBC Press, ), -; and W. Peter Ward, White Canada
Forever: Popular Attitudes and Public Policy toward Orientals in British Columbia, nd ed.
(Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, ), . In her most recent study, Roy affirms:
“Seldom, if ever, did [racism] have a single biological, social, or economic cause; rather it was
based on combinations of these factors, whose relative weight varied according both to the
individual group affected and to the time in which the antipathy was expressed.” See Patricia
Roy, The Oriental Question: Consolidating a White Man’s Province, 1914-1941 (Vancouver: UBC
Press, ), .
Adachi, The Enemy That Never Was, ; and Bruce Ryder, “Racism and the Constitution: The
Constitutional Fate of British Columbia Anti-Asian Immigration Legislation, -,”
Osgoode Hall Law Journal  ():  - .
Canada, “Report of the Royal Commission to Investigate Chinese and Japanese Immigration,”
xi.
On the Japanese emigration embargo, see Charles J. Woodsworth, Canada and the Orient: A
Study in International Relations (Toronto: Macmillan, ),  -.
Canada, “Report of the Royal Commission to Investigate Chinese and Japanese Immigration,”
.
House of Commons, Debates 1903, :- .
Canada’s Struggle with Illegal Entry
43
Japanese emigration to British Columbia remained at very low levels
between  and , but this soon changed. 29
LIMITING THE JAPANESE INFLUX
The Canadian experience with the Chinese Immigration Act, ,
had shown that immigration restrictions generated evasions of the law,
frauds, and human smuggling. 30 Some migrants rejected the modern
nation-state’s assumption of the right to regulate people’s movements
across international borders and to determine who should be “in” and
who “out.”31 Nevertheless, the BC public consistently and forcefully
pressed for restrictions – even exclusion. Their demands were most
vigorous when the economy was faltering or when the Asian influx
spiked to unusually high levels. When one or both of these conditions
were met in , , and , respectively, Japanese migrants
became the target of public protest and new restrictive measures.
These measures, made more restrictive at each revision, heightened
the incentive for migrants and unscrupulous persons, especially those
involved with transportation companies and the Immigration Branch,
to resort to illegal entry or even human smuggling.
Fred Yoshy’s name appeared in association with the first known and
noteworthy incident of Japanese illegal entry into British Columbia.
He was in his thirties at the time, but his background remains obscure.
While employed as a clerk at the Japanese Consulate in Vancouver, he
helped Oikawa Jinsaburo, a Japanese businessman based on the lower
Fraser River, develop a plan to land by stealth a group of illegal Japanese
migrants disguised as fishers. Jinsaburo executed the plan in the fall of
, using the schooner Suian Maru, but all eighty-two of his illegal
migrants were apprehended by the authorities on Vancouver Island.32
29
30
31
32
Klaus H. Pringsheim, Neighbours across the Pacific: Canadian-Japanese Relations, 1870-1982
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, ), , reports the number at ; Roy et al., Mutual
Hostages, , table , using Japanese government data, report ; Roy, White Man’s Province,
, reports ; and The Canada Yearbook 1932 (Ottawa: General Statistics Branch, ), ,
also reports .
Cameron, “Creating Illegal Immigration.”
For an illuminating discussion of how and why modern nation-states came to monopolize
the movement of peoples across their borders in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, see John Torpey, The Invention of the Passport: Surveillance, Citizenship and the
State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ).
See David Sulz, “Japanese ‘Entrepreneur’ on the Fraser River: Oikawa Jinsaburo and the Illegal
Immigrants of the Suian Maru” (MA thesis, University of Victoria, ). This fascinating
thesis investigates the historical accuracy of Nitta Jiro’s  historical novel Stowaway Ship
Suian Maru (translated as Phantom Immigrants, ), which tells the story of the Japanese
businessman who orchestrated the human smuggling fiasco. See also Dr. H.P. Bryce, Chief
44
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Despite the current of anti-Japanese sentiment in British Columbia,
all were permitted to stay in Canada, perhaps because of the need for
railway labourers, the negligible Japanese immigrations levels from 
to , and Yoshy’s interventions on their behalf. 33 BC newspapers
reported the incident under headlines such as these: “Number of Japs
Smuggled Ashore” (Victoria Times,  October ) and “Small Army
of Japs Captured” (Victoria Times,  October ).
Yoshy’s participation in the Suian Maru affair perhaps alerted him
to the possible financial rewards of human smuggling; it certainly
foreshadowed his later illegal activities while Japanese interpreter
for the Vancouver Office of the Immigration Branch. Meanwhile, in
late , he left the Japanese Consulate and, along with Saori Goto,
formed the Canadian Nippon Supply Company. He predicted that the
recruitment of Japanese labourers for Canadian companies would be a
lucrative enterprise, given the labour requirements of the booming BC
economy. 34 After the Vancouver Riot in , when Mackenzie King,
deputy minister of labour, investigated the methods that had been used
to “induce” Asian labourers to come to British Columbia, he interviewed
Yoshy. In the course of his inquiry King found that Yoshy lied about
his company’s covert relationship with Japanese emigration firms, such
as the Tokyo Emigration Company. 35 There were later indications
that Yoshy had trouble with the law as his Canadian Nippon Supply
Company was the defendant in civil cases heard in the Revelstoke and
Golden county courts in the s.36
Within a year of the Suian Maru incident Canada imposed the first
immigration restrictions on the Japanese. They were precipitated by an
unusually high influx of Asian immigrants in . From January through
October, , Asians arrived – , Japanese, , East Indians, and
, Chinese. 37 According to Charles Woodsworth, “Anti-Oriental
33
34
35
36
37
Medical Officer, to W.D. Scott, Superintendent of Immigration,  October , rg ,
Immigration, vol. , file , reel c -; G.L. Milne to W.D. Scott,  October ,
rg , Immigration, series -a-, vol. , reel c -; and G.L. Milne to W.D. Scott, 
September , rg , Immigration, series -a-, vol. , file , reel c -, ac.
Nakayama, Issei, - .
Donald H. Avery, Reluctant Host: Canada’s Response to Immigrant Workers, 1896-1994 (Toronto:
McClelland and Stewart, ), pp.  -.
Canada, Report of the Royal Commission Appointed to Inquire into the Methods by Which Oriental
Labourers Have Been Induced to Come to Canada, 1908 (Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau,
), .
Golden County Court civil case files - (gr-), box , file  / and /; and Revelstoke
County Court civil case file,  (gr-), box , file , BC Archives. Unfortunately, the
company papers do not appear to have been preserved.
Canada, Report of the Royal Commission, .
Canada’s Struggle with Illegal Entry
45
feeling was rife all along the Pacific coast at this time.”38 The following
September the Vancouver Riot noted above broke out when a large
number of marchers went on a rampage through Chinatown and “Little
Tokyo” (the Powell Street district). 39 Mackenzie King was appointed
to investigate the property losses suffered by Asians,40 and then he
was to determine the causes of the massive influx of migrants. King
found that nearly , Japanese had come to British Columbia from
the Hawaiian Islands because the flow into the United States had been
blocked by their recent “gentlemen’s agreement”; the remainder came
directly from Japan, some as contract labourers through arrangements
between Yoshy’s recently formed Canadian Nippon Supply Company
and the Tokyo Emigration Company. King recommended that social
harmony in British Columbia and good relations between Canada and
Japan required “an effective restriction of the numbers of Japanese who
shall be admitted to Canada each year.”41
In response to developments in Vancouver and King’s commission
findings, Prime Minister Laurier dispatched his minister of labour,
Rodolphe Lemieux, as Canadian commissioner to Japan, where he
concluded a gentlemen’s agreement for the restriction of emigration to
Canada. In January  Canada adhered to the British-Japanese Treaty
of Commerce and Navigation, which permitted the contracting parties
“full liberty to enter, travel, or reside in any part of the dominions and
possessions of the other Contracting Party.”42 This treaty, along with
Japan’s advancing importance as an industrial and military power, had
convinced Laurier to follow the US approach and to opt for negotiation
rather than unilateral restriction (which had been the Conservative
government approach to the Chinese back in ).
Aspects of the gentlemen’s agreement gradually became clear.43
Japan agreed to restrict to  the number of passports annually
issued to Japanese labourers and domestics. However, four classes of
migrants were not included: prior Canadian residents and their families,
domestics engaged by Japanese residents in Canada, contract emigrants,
and agricultural labourers brought in by Japanese landholders.44 Japan
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
Woodsworth, Canada and the Orient, .
See Adachi, The Enemy That Never Was, -.
Canada, Report on the Losses Sustained by the Japanese Population of Vancouver, BC, on the
Occasion of the Riots in that City in September, 1907 (Ottawa: King’s Printer, ).
Canada, Report of the Royal Commission, .
“An Act respecting a certain Treaty between Canada and Japan,” Statutes of Canada 1907,
.
See House of Commons, Debates 1907-8, ,- , , - ; and Debates 1912-13, ,.
Adachi, The Enemy That Never Was, -.
46
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thought that, under these restrictions, no more than about  labourers
(not including women and children) would enter Canada annually. In
 Japan believed that it had faithfully enforced the limit of .45
But, according to Klaus H. Pringsheim, the Canadian public assumed
that  was the overall limit and, hence, accused Japan of bad faith
when more than this number came, as they often did until the s:
“The Gentlemen’s Agreement did not completely succeed because its
provisions were never explained to the public, which mistakenly believed
that only four hundred per year were to be admitted in all categories.”46
The agreement brought the first stage of Japanese immigration to a
close and “accelerated the immigration of women” – mostly picture
brides – which inaugurated “a transition from [single male sojourners]
labouring overseas to more long-term settlement.”47
TIGHTENING THE RESTRICTIONS
After the First World War, Asian immigration into British Columbia
again became an issue of intense public scrutiny and concern. Annual
totals increased markedly (, in ; , in )48 while soldiers were
reintegrating into civilian life, the economy experienced a significant
downturn, and labour militancy increased. In  the number of
Japanese living in British Columbia was ,, compared to , in
.49 Annual Japanese immigration had remained between about 
and  during the war; however, their birthrate had increased, largely
as a result of the picture-bride system.50 BC MPs frequently pontificated
in the House on the “Oriental Question,” striving to educate eastern
members regarding the seriousness of the issue.51 In  H.H. Stevens,
representative for Vancouver Centre, convened all thirteen BC MPs
to organize a solid force to press for total exclusion of all Asians.52
The government admitted that, “in the opinion of this House, the
immigration of oriental aliens and their rapid multiplication is becoming
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
Foreign Secretary to Ambassador in Japan,  January , in Canada, Documents on Canadian
External Relations, vol. : 1909-1918 (Ottawa: Department of External Affairs, ), .
Pringsheim, Neighbours across the Pacific, ; and Woodsworth, Canada and the Orient,  .
Ayukawa, “Good Wives and Wise Mothers,” .
Canada Yearbook 1932, .
Census of Canada,  and .
Ayukawa states that , picture brides had arrived in Canada by . See Ayukawa, “Good
Wives and Wise Mothers,” .
Patricia E. Roy, “Educating the ‘East’: British Columbia and the Oriental Question in the
Interwar Years,” BC Studies  (Summer ):  - .
House of Commons, Debates 1938, :.
Canada’s Struggle with Illegal Entry
47
a serious menace to living conditions, particularly on the Pacific coast,
and to the future of the country in general, and the Government should
take immediate action with a view to bringing to an end further such
immigration for residence purposes.”53 W.L. Mackenzie King, now
prime minister, announced that his Liberal government planned to
bring about “effective restriction” of Asian immigration – but probably
not before the next session of Parliament.54
British Columbia’s federal politicians were disappointed in  when
the government introduced a bill that imposed virtual exclusion on the
Chinese and but not on the Japanese.55 However, King’s government
did pressure Japan to revise the gentlemen’s agreement of . The
prime minister met with Tamekichi Ohta, the Japanese consul-general
at Ottawa, and warned him that, if they could not negotiate a decrease
in the quota, then his government might abrogate the agreement and
denounce the trade treaty. King confided in his diary: “I told him it
was only to preserve internal goodwill. Spoke of fears of people of BC
through increase of birth rate, etc.”56 He had further discussions with
Ohta and then drafted a letter to the Japanese government “omitting
all threatening and controversial clauses and leaving it to the Japanese
government to take the necessary steps without apparent pressure. I have
made plain our alternatives in conversation and Ohta has passed them
on to his government.”57 The Japanese government cooperated, thankful
that Canada had not passed legislation excluding their nationals.58 On
August  Ohta wrote to the minister of immigration “that the Japanese
Government do [sic] not ... contemplate that the number of Japanese
emigrants going to Canada as household servants and agricultural
labourers will exceed one hundred and fifty annually.”59 Wives and
children were not included in this reduced annual quota.
In the postwar atmosphere of heightened anxiety about Asian
immigration, there again surfaced allegations of illegal entry and
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
Ibid., Debates 1922, :.
Ibid., : and :.
House of Commons, Debates 1923, :. The  Chinese Immigration Act would not be
repealed until . See Stephanie D. Bangarth, “’We Are Not Asking You to Open Wide the
Gates for Chinese Immigration’: The Committee for the Repeal of the Chinese Immigration
Act and Early Human Rights Activism in Canada,” Canadian Historical Review ,  ():
-.
William Lyon Mackenzie King, Diary: 1893-1950, entry  February , at the Library
and Archives Canada website: The Diaries of William Lyon Mackenzie King <http:
//king.collectionscanada.ca/.>
Ibid., entry  March .
Canada, Documents on Canadian External Relations, vol. : 1919-1925 (Ottawa, Department
of External Relations, ), .
Tamekichi Ohta to James A. Robb,  August , Sessional Papers of Canada, , no. .
48
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human smuggling. Fred Yoshy, the Japanese interpreter for the
Immigration Branch at Vancouver since , appeared at the centre
of rcmp suspicions. Officer T.A. Wroughton, assistant commissioner
for British Columbia, warned in : “It would appear that this man
Yoshy is one who will almost do anything for money, and if that is a
fact he is a very dangerous person to have attached to an Immigration
Port such as Vancouver, which has direct communication with Japan.
In my opinion it leaves the door ... open for spies to come and go as
they please.”60 The rcmp found that three Japanese men had landed
from the SS Empress of Russia on  November and had not registered
with the Japanese Consulate, as required. They each had naturalization
papers purchased at a Japanese hotel in the City of Kobe. Yoshy, without
proper authorization, allowed them to land and even had them stay at
his home until they had made contact with friends or relatives. Then he
charged them seventy-five dollars plus twenty-five dollars for lodging.
One had difficulty paying and made a full confession of the events to
the Japanese Consul, who contacted the home government to have the
hotel prohibited from selling Canadian naturalization papers.61
Surprisingly, nothing came of these allegations. Arthur L. Jolliffe,
the Commissioner of Immigration for the Pacific coast, did not agree
with the rcmp report, claiming that all the Japanese immigrants on
the SS Empress of Russia had been properly processed. He noted that
Yoshy was merely the interpreter; that the customs inspector decided
who was to be admitted. Jolliffe claimed the allegations originated with
a Japanese newspaper in Vancouver that was in competition with one
edited by Yoshy: “There are two Japanese factions in this City, and one
of them is very hostile to Yoshy, who is employed by us for Japanese
interpreting work. Yoshy is the editor of the other newspaper, and I am
satisfied it is simply a matter of spite.” Nonetheless, Jolliffe commented
that it was “very difficult to get to the bottom of matters of this kind”
because they could not question the rcmp “operators” who were working
“under cover.”62 A more compelling, though apparently now unprovable,
explanation for the allegations of wrongdoing might be this: some Issei
in British Columbia were hostile to Yoshy because they believed that
he was an unscrupulous and dangerous individual who might shame
60
61
62
T.A. Wroughton to rcmp Commissioner, Ottawa,  December , rg, Immigration,
series -a-, vol. , reel c -, ac.
rcmp Secret and Confidential Report re Frank [sic] Yoshy,  December , rg,
Immigration, series -a-, vol. , reel c -, ac.
A.L. Jolliffe to rcmp officer,  January , rg, Immigration, series -a-, vol. , reel
c -, ac.
Canada’s Struggle with Illegal Entry
49
the entire community. And perhaps Commissioner Jolliffe was put off
Yoshy’s trail by one or more immigration officials in Vancouver who
were collaborating with him.
MORE EFFECTIVELY RESTRICTING
JAPANESE IMMIGRATION
Some whites in British Columbia continued to express anger at the
extent of Japanese immigration even after the gentlemen’s agreement
had been revised from  down to  in . Annual figures reported
by the Immigration Branch remained well over  from  to ,
in spite of the officially reduced quota.63 Some concluded that Japan
was demonstrating bad faith; they urged the government to exclude
the Japanese, just as the United States had done in .64 Again
under fire from the BC public and his political opponents, King
privately threatened Japan in  with exclusionary legislation if it
did not voluntarily restrict the emigration of women and children.65
After extended negotiations that included a series of proposals and
counterproposals during the next few years,66 and a milestone agreement
to establish formal diplomatic relations through the exchange of
ministers with Japan, 67 King was able to announce, in June ,
another revision to the gentlemen’s agreement: Japan had now agreed
to include wives and children in the annual quota of , the picturebride system would cease, and officials of the planned Canadian legation
would assign visas to passports issued by Japan to those wishing to
emigrate to Canada.68 Hugh L. Keenleyside, a pioneer member of the
new diplomatic mission opened at Tokyo in  – Canada’s first in
Asia – claimed that “the complicated nature and detailed procedures of
the immigration agreement between Canada and Japan” had been one
important reason for the institution of the legation.69 From  to 
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
Canada Yearbook 1932, . The Japanese government reported annual figures for these years
of over ,. See Roy et al., Mutual Hostages, , table .
Yuji Ichioka, The Issei: The World of the First Generation Japanese Immigrants, 1885-1924 (New
York: The Free Press, ), .
Canada, Documents on Canadian External Relations, vol. : 1919-1925, -.
Ibid., -.
Tou Chu Dou Lynhiavu, “Canada’s Window on Asia: The Establishment of the Tokyo
Legation in -.” Journal of Canadian Studies ,  ( - ):  -.
Japanese Consul General to the Prime Minister,  May , in Canada, Documents on
Canadian External Relations, vol. : 1926-1930, , and House of Commons, Debates 1928,
,.
Hugh L. Keenleyside, Memoirs of Hugh L. Keenleyside: Hammer the Golden Day (Toronto:
McClelland and Stewart, ), :.
50
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this new arrangement worked effectively to keep the annual number of
migrants below the quota, but still the persistent exclusionists would
urge “an outright ban.” 70
In the same year that the gentlemen’s agreement was revised, Yoshy
again appeared on the rcmp radar screen. A confidential informer
made a statement to Inspector A.E. Reames on  June : “Yoshy
and his partner ... are trafficking in smuggling some innocent Japanese
into this country by the way of using naturalization certificates. The
partner in Japan trains Japanese applicants to some extent to fit them
to be examined at a Port of Entry in Canada for precaution’s sake,
but it is so arranged that this Fred Yoshy is always to meet these
immigrants at Victoria, because this Yoshy is allowed to examine
Japanese immigrants by himself alone.” The informer claimed that, if
the government were to be lenient with them, then others would come
forward to witness against him.71 He added that Yoshy was living with
“a concubine,” the wife of a Japanese man who had returned to Japan
apparently “without any reason.” 72 In spite of these serious allegations,
the rcmp informed the deputy minister of immigration and colonization
“that subsequent investigation in Japan tends to clear Yoshy of the
suspicions mentioned.” 73 Yet the allaying of suspicion was short-lived as
an rcmp inspector, L.J. Sampson, obtained two pieces of evidence that
precipitated a thorough and decisive investigation of Yoshy. Sampson saw
a report in the Yokohama News about a police disclosure of “a smuggler’s
gang that assist Japanese into Vancouver, BC, illegally.” He suspected
that Yoshy might be the collaborator on the BC side. As well, he heard
further testimony that a smuggling operation had brought large numbers
into British Columbia.74
Jolliffe, the commissioner of immigration who had dismissed
allegations of human smuggling against Yoshy back in , asked his
division commissioner in Vancouver if Yoshy had been permitted to
examine Japanese immigrants by himself. To Jolliffe’s astonishment,
A.E. Skinner admitted this, although he had earlier denied it to the
rcmp. He tended to downplay the seriousness of the matter and claimed
70
71
72
73
74
John D. Meehan, The Dominion and the Rising Sun: Canada Encounters Japan, 1929 -41
(Vancouver: UBC Press, ), .
Anonymous statement,  June , rg, Immigration, series -a-, vol. , reel c -,
ac.
Ibid.
Cortlandt Starnes, rcmp Commissioner, to Deputy Minister, Immigration and Colonization,
 September , rg, Immigration, series -a-, vol. , reel c -, ac.
L.J. Sampson, Report re Fred Yoshy,  October , rg, Immigration, series -a-, vol.
, reel c -, ac.
Canada’s Struggle with Illegal Entry
51
that he could not be expected to “travel on vessels bringing in this
class of immigrant”; he hoped that there would be “no further need to
comment on this matter.”75 Incensed, Jolliffe forthwith directed Skinner
to reprimand his officers, to make a personal check on the procedures
they followed, and to be assured that he would be held personally
accountable for rectifying the irregularity.76 Meanwhile, he asked the
rcmp to continue the investigation of Yoshy.77 Strangely, nothing more
was heard of it for two more years.
It is hard not to conclude that one or more immigration officials
in Vancouver – perhaps Yoshy collaborators – effected a cover-up
each time suspicions were raised about a clandestine smuggling
operation. Information obtained by Inspector Sampson certainly
indicated corruption within the branch during Skinner’s supervision.
Sampson reported an assault case tried in Vancouver, where a witness
for the prosecution, Jinnosuke Yamashita (a firefighter on the Union
Steamship’s Lady Alexandria), testified that another man accused him of
reporting illegal entrants to the police. His assailant declared something
like this: “Now, there are over  Japanese in this Country smuggled
in and some of them are determined to kill you to avoid deportation,
and asked me to do the job on condition that these men would collect
 per head and pay me that amount, and further I know you reported
me to the Immigration Officer about my illegal entry into Canada, but I
paid two certain Immigration Officers the sum of three hundred dollars
and got permission to stay here without being molested anymore.” If
Jinnosuke’s testimony is true, then it shows that Yoshy was not the only
corrupt official working for the Vancouver Immigration Branch.78
INVESTIGATING THE JAPANESE INTERPRETER
In December  Wesley Ashton Gordon, the recently elected
Conservative government’s minister of immigration and colonization,
received this message from the lieutenant-governor of British
Columbia: “a certain Japanese interpreter at Vancouver employed by
75
76
77
78
Skinner to Jolliffe,  December , rg, Immigration, series -A-, vol. , reel C-,
ac.
A.L. Jolliffe to A.E. Skinner,  November , Skinner to Jolliffe,  November , Jolliffe
to Skinner,  November  Jolliffe to Skinner,  December , rg, Immigration, series
-a-, vol. , reel c -, ac.
Immigration Commissioner to C. Starnes, rcmp Commissioner,  November , rg,
Immigration, series -a-, vol. , reel c -, ac.
L.J. Sampson, Report re Fred Yoshy, alias Kiyoshi Sugimoto,  October , rg,
Immigration, series -a-, vol. , reel C-, ac.
52
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your Department is making a business of securing false birth certificates
for Japanese immigrants.” 79 This time Jolliffe directed Skinner, who
was in Vancouver, to make a prompt investigation followed by a full
report, which he did. Skinner recognized that the matter was a political
issue. Nonetheless, he exonerated Yoshy, just as he had done two years
before. His defence of Yoshy and his tendency to downplay the matter
is astonishing; perhaps he merely wanted to protect the reputation of his
Vancouver Immigration Division. Or maybe he had a deeper interest in
Yoshy’s activities as a direct collaborator; the evidence is inconclusive
but elicits strong suspicion. Immediately, Jolliffe requested the rcmp
to again investigate Yoshy.80 Why he did not widen the investigation
to include the entire Vancouver Immigration Branch is difficult to
say. Within one month, Inspector Sampson filed a secret report that
heightened suspicion of Yoshy.81 The rcmp asked the deputy minister
of immigration to appoint Sampson an immigration officer for the sake
of the investigation, and this was done.
By May the rcmp had amassed a substantial amount of evidence for
perjury (false declarations), fifty fraudulent birth certificates along with
false naturalization certificates, some dating as far back as . As well,
they continued to receive statements incriminating Yoshy (such as those
given by the two Suzuki brothers whom Inspector Sampson had picked
up at the Merritt Sawmill). Based on the investigation’s progress by early
June, Jolliffe directed the Vancouver office “to immediately discontinue
employment [of] Yoshy as interpreter.”82 The rcmp then retained the
Honourable R.L. Maitland, a lawyer and BC mla, who took charge of
the prosecution on  June . On  July Inspector Sampson arrested
Yoshy, and he was released on , bail (later raised to ,). The
investigation proved to be difficult as witnesses mysteriously disappeared
and others were afraid to provide evidence for fear of deportation. The
rcmp superintendent for British Columbia informed the commissioner
in Ottawa as follows: “You will fully appreciate the fact that we are
working under very severe handicaps, and opposed to a very complete
organization of some considerable years standing, for smuggling, or
otherwise through fraudulent means obtaining domicile for Japanese
79
80
81
82
Under-Secretary of State to Hon. Wesley Ashton Gordon, Minister of Immigration and
Colonization, December , rg, Immigration, series -a-, vol. , reel c -, ac.
Jolliffe to rcmp Commissioner, Ottawa,  December , rg, Immigration, series -a-,
, reel c -, ac.
L.J. Sampson, re Fred Yoshy, Securing false birth certificates for the use of Japanese immigrants,  January , rg, Immigration, series -a-, vol. , reel c -, ac.
A.L. Jolliffe to A.E. Skinner,  June , rg, Immigration, series -a-, vol. , reel
c -, ac.
Canada’s Struggle with Illegal Entry
53
illegally in the Dominion of Canada; but we shall endeavour to do the
best possible to get sufficient evidence before the Courts.”83 The police
believed that Yoshy and his accomplices were trying to get key witnesses
out of the country before they could be apprehended and testify in
court.
Meanwhile, the major newspapers announced the developments to the
public. On  July an Ottawa Citizen headline declared, “Deportation
Threatens Hundreds of Japanese: BC Investigation May Expose Illegal
Entry,” and the day before Vancouver’s Daily Province had announced,
“Mounted Police Net Closes on Alien Suspects: Hundreds of Japanese
Reported to Be Illegally in Canada.” During the spring and summer BC
members in the House of Commons got wind of the human smuggling
allegations and investigation. Thomas Reid (New Westminster) urged
the minister of immigration to investigate “to the fullest extent” and
informed the House of “an extensive province-wide conspiracy to evade
immigration laws” and, therefore, a “serious state of affairs.”84
After Yoshy’s preliminary hearing on  July, the Crown prosecutor
informed the minister of justice: “The preliminary hearing took the
entire day, and included a great mass of evidence, together with the
testimony of several Japanese. I am not certain how far reaching these
prosecutions will be, as the estimate is that there must be a tremendous
number of Japanese in this country irregularly, and [Yoshy] seems to have
been the Ringleader connecting up with agents in Japan and Japanese in
British Columbia.”85 Japanese newspapers in British Columbia, such as
the Daily People and the Canada Daily News, reported the investigation
and court proceedings, as did Vancouver’s Daily Province.86
On  September  a jury of twelve in the BC Supreme Court
convicted Fred Yoshy of two charges – conspiracy and unlawfully
receiving a gift while employed by the government.87 He was sentenced
to serve two years and six months hard labour in the BC Penitentiary
83
84
85
86
87
H.M. Newson to rcmp Commissioner, Ottawa,  July , rg, Immigration, series -a-,
vol. , reel c -, ac.
House of Commons, Debates 1931, : - and :.
R.L. Maitland to the Honourable Hugh Guthrie,  July , rg, Immigration, series -a-,
vol. , reel C-, ac. The document listing evidence presented to the court – all from
the s – was three pages and included letters, telegrams, diaries, genealogical documents,
statutory declarations, British Consul visas, certificates of naturalization, birth certificates,
and immigration identification cards. List of Diaries, Documents, and so forth handed into
court for the preliminary hearing of Fred Yoshy before Deputy Police Magistrate J.A. Findlay
on  July , rg, Immigration, series -a-, vol. , reel c -, ac.
See the Daily Province, , , and  September .
T.S. Belcher, Assistant rcmp Commissioner, to Immigration Commissioner,  September
, rg, Immigration, series -a-, vol. , reel c -, ac.
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as well as one month hard labour (concurrent) for conspiracy; he was
also assessed a fine of  for receiving a gift.88 He was fifty-six years
old and probably returned to Japan shortly after his release from jail.
His sixteen-year career as official Japanese interpreter in Vancouver had
ended in shame. Maitland, the prosecutor, concluded that the last six
years had been Yoshy’s most corrupt. The conspiracy had involved Yoshy
and three other Japanese in Japan, one employed by the British consulate
and the other by a steamship company.89 He mentioned nothing of
collaborators or corrupt officials within the Vancouver Immigration
Division. Maitland reported as follows to the deputy minister of justice:
“The different transactions were gradually pieced together and I was able
to make out at the trial a case of straight connection with the men in
Japan and Yoshy in Vancouver for the bringing into Canada of Japanese
by false birth certificates, the sale of these birth certificates to persons in
Japan at a price as high as  and the same dealing, of course, with
Naturalization certificates.” He added that “Yoshy’s case was very bitterly
fought” and that “we were met in the early stages with the disappearance
of witness after witness.” 90 The Suzuki brothers of Merritt had both
testified against Yoshy.91 The damage Yoshy’s smuggling scheme
inflicted on his fellow countrypeople in British Columbia was yet to
be determined. The Japanese community viewed him as an odious,
shameful, embarrassing, and dangerous individual.92
COMMUNITY UNDER INVESTIGATION
Public disclosure of the Yoshy smuggling racket likely helped to fuel
intermittent allegations and rumours of illegal Japanese entry along the
Pacific Coast during the s.93 It immediately unleashed a long-term
joint rcmp -Immigration Branch search through Japanese communities
in British Columbia for illegal entrants. Already in August  the
88
89
90
91
92
93
rcmp Report on Conclusion of Case,  December , rg, Immigration, series -a-, vol.
, file , reel c -, ac.
Daily Province,  September .
R.L. Maitland to W. Stuart Edwards,  December , rg , Immigration, series -a-, vol.
, file , reel c -, ac.
By telling all they knew the Suzuki brothers hoped to obtain clemency and to be allowed to
remain in Canada. See Daily Province,  September .
Midge Ayukawa to author,  May .
Common rumours claimed that Japanese fishing boats were ferrying illegal migrants from
steamships standing off the coast to Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands. See
H. McGowan to Inspector Mead,  October , Sergeant R.S.S. Wilson to J.W. Phillips,
 August , and Inspector R. Armitage to rcmp Commissioner, Ottawa,  February ,
rg, Immigration, series -a-, vol. , reel c -, file , ac.
Canada’s Struggle with Illegal Entry
55
rcmp commissioner in Ottawa had ordered an intensive provincewide
investigation into the status of Japanese immigrants. As required,
Immigration Branch officials were to accompany the rcmp patrols.94
Where possible, they would use surprise tactics to forestall evasions. As
well, the police planned to investigate any Japanese businesspeople who
had aroused suspicions and to check the papers of any Japanese living
in boarding houses. Any who failed to produce proper identification
would be brought to the Immigration Office in Vancouver for further
questioning. The minister of immigration asked Maitland to continue
prosecuting, and those found in violation of the Immigration Law were
to be deported.95
The Japanese community was clearly distressed and alarmed by the
Yoshy conviction and its potential for disrupting the lives of many
Japanese living in the province. In September leading Japanese citizens
formed the Japanese Public Justice Association to monitor the impact
of the rcmp investigation. It wrote to both Major H.M. Newson,
commanding officer of the rcmp, Vancouver, and to the minister of
immigration and colonization acknowledging the wrongfulness of
illegal entry. However, the Issei, having experienced life in both Japan
and British Columbia, well understood the strong temptation for
some young Japanese men to enter the province by any means possible,
especially given the limitations on passports imposed by the gentlemen’s
agreement and their total exclusion from the United States after .
Japan’s rapid industrialization and population increases had conspired
to create economic suffering for many of the Japanese rural poor and
urban working classes.96 And British Columbia no doubt appeared to
them as a land of seductive financial charms, with its robust economic
growth and its diverse work opportunities across rich resource sectors.97
The association leaders also noted that some of those who had entered
94
95
96
97
J.H. MacBrien to Deputy Minister of Immigration and Colonization,  August , rg,
Immigration, series -a-, vol. , reel c -, ac. In the coastal communities the rcmp
were also to check the legality of fishing licences held by Japanese fishers.
A  amendment to the Immigration Act established the statutory basis for deporting immigrants who had entered in contravention of the act. This statutory basis was expanded in the
 and  Immigration Acts. See An Act to Amend the Immigration Act, Statutes of Canada,
, p. ; and Henry F. Drysek, “‘The Simplest and Cheapest Mode of Dealing with Them’:
Deportation from Canada before World War II,” Histoire Sociale/Social History ,  (): .
Barbara Roberts provides an overview and sharp analysis of early deportation from Canada in
Whence They Came: Deportation from Canada, 1900-1935 (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press,
), but she doesn’t throw much light on deportation related to illegal entry.
William J. Duiker, Twentieth-Century History, rd ed. (Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth,
), .
Jean Barman, The West beyond the West: A History of British Columbia, rev. ed. (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, ), pp.  -.
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illegally had lived in the country for many years and had been raising
families and making an honest living.98 The investigation could seriously
affect their future prospects. Therefore, it pleaded for “a somewhat
lenient attitude” on the part of the authorities and hinted that Canada’s
friendship and trade relations with Japan could be affected.99
The association eventually decided, by unanimous resolution, on the
following policies regarding Japanese illegal entrants: to support the
lawful prosecution of the ring-leaders and their accomplices as well as
those who had “abused freely” illegal papers; to help “settle the matter
smoothly” for those who had no intention of obtaining illegal papers
but had been led astray; to lobby government for a “somewhat lenient
attitude” towards the many hundreds who had obtained papers illegally;
and to recommend that those who had landed as ship-deserters be
assessed on an individual basis. Association minutes referred to the
rcmp investigation as “very regrettable” but added that “the officials
in this country are fortunately taking a very moderate policy.” 100 The
association did supply useful information to the rcmp.101
By  the BC Japanese community of about , was well
established.102 From  to  the annual totals of Japanese immigrants
ranged from a low of forty-four () to a high of  (). Normally,
the yearly totals were between  and , well below those of the
previous three decades.103 The revised gentlemen’s agreement of 
and the Great Depression probably accounted for the decrease, as did
the termination of the Yoshy smuggling scheme. Whites were now
more dismayed by the high birth rate of the Japanese than by their
immigration levels.104 During a parliamentary debate on the Japanese,
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
The letters were signed by the leaders of thirteen Japanese organizations, such as the Japanese
Anglican Church, Vancouver; the Japanese Buddhism Mission; the Salvation Army; the
Japanese Corps, Vancouver; and the Japanese Gardeners’ Association, Vancouver. Kosei-Kai
to the Minister of Immigration and Colonization,  November , rg, Immigration,
series, -a-, vol. , reel c -, file , ac.
Junjiro Nakayama, President, to H.M. Newson,  September , rg, Immigration, series
-a-, vol. , reel c -, file , ac.
Translation of selected reports of the Japanese Public Justice Association that appeared in
three Japanese newspapers issued  December , rg, Immigration, series -a-, vol. ,
reel c -, file , ac. Inspector Sampson, who led the early investigation, was killed
in May  while on duty in Regina. The rcmp claimed that Canadian Japanese, the bench,
and the press specially commended him for his sensitive work on Japanese violations of the
Immigration Act. See obituary, RCMP Quarterly , (): .
Inspector F.J. Mead to S.T. Wood, Superintendent Commanding E Division,  July ,
rg, Immigration, series -a-, vol. , reel c -, file , ac.
Census of Canada 1931.
The Canada Yearbook 1942 (Ottawa: Dominion Bureau of Statistics, ), .
Roy et al., Mutual Hostages, .
Canada’s Struggle with Illegal Entry
57
A.W. Neill (Comox-Alberni) observed that “more trouble is caused by
the stork than by the immigrant ship.”105 While the early s appeared
to be a period of increased tolerance,106 the Japanese continued to face
discrimination and political disabilities (such as disenfranchisement).107
Transnational Japanese farming communities were firmly rooted in the
Fraser Valley, where they remained somewhat isolated and segregated
from white society in such places as Mission, Surrey, Pitt Meadows, and
Haney. In contrast to the Japanese fishing villages that were based on
seasonal work and thus were quite transient, the farming communities
were cohesive and practised cooperation and mutual support.108 By the
s the second generation of Japanese (the Nisei) were maturing under
the influence of two distinct cultures and, along with the Issei, had built
up “a vast complex of associations and clubs.”109
Following leads provided by informants, the rcmp investigated
any Japanese fishing village, farming community, resource town, or
business allegedly harbouring illegals. Unannounced, they arrived at
numerous communities on Vancouver Island (Fanny Bay, Courtenay,
Port Alberni); the Gulf Islands (Reid, Galiano, Mayne); north along the
Pacific Coast (Britannia Mines, Woodfibre, Ocean Falls, Prince Rupert,
Alert Bay, the Skeena River Valley); the Fraser Valley (Chilliwack,
Sardis, Port Coquitlam); and the BC interior (Kelowna, Vernon, and
rural districts in the Okanagan Valley). Frequently, advanced warning
of an rcmp patrol helped Japanese labourers to evade the police; many
left the country. Those questioned sometimes claimed to have lost
their papers.110 The patrols filed reams of reports, freely exchanged
information with the Immigration Branch, and had access to records
at the Japanese Consulate in Vancouver. In December  an officer,
aided by an interpreter, began monitoring all Japanese on ships leaving
Vancouver and Victoria for Japan.111 They regularly found Japanese
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
House of Commons, Debates 1931, :.
Patricia E. Roy, “The Illusion of Toleration: White Opinions of Asians in British Columbia,
-,” in Visible Minorities and Multiculturalism: Asians in Canada, ed. K. Victor Ujimoto and
Gordon Hirabayashi, -  (Toronto: Butterworths, ); and Roy, The Oriental Question,
- .
H.F. Angus, “The Legal Status in British Columbia of Residents of Oriental Race and Their
Descendants,” Canadian Bar Review ,  (): -.
Anne Dore, “Transnational Communities, “ pp. - .
Adachi, The Enemy That Never Was, .
Sergeant Fred Markland, BC Provincial Police, to Inspector Sampson, rcmp,  October
, rg, Immigration, series -a-, vol. , reel c -, file , ac.
F.W. Taylor to Commissioner of Immigration, Ottawa,  January , rg, Immigration,
series -a-, vol. , reel c -, file , ac.
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with no papers whatsoever and thus assumed that they had entered the
country “by some illegal means unknown.”112
A review of selected patrol operations illustrates how the rcmp
worked and the results they attained. In February  a special patrol
visited the Pacific Mills at Ocean Falls, about  kilometres north of
Vancouver, and obtained its entire employee list. They apprehended
sixteen suspected illegals and took them to Vancouver for questioning.
Otokichi Nakahara, age forty-two, claimed that Yoshy, the convicted
Japanese interpreter, had loaned him a naturalization certificate for a
handsome price. He had landed on  April , under the name of
T. Suzuki. Moriji Kawahigashi, age twenty-six, arrived in  as a
stowaway on the Empress of Canada ; Kisuke Morita, age twenty-six,
arrived as a stowaway in  on the Empress of Asia ; Kitaro Nitsutani,
age forty-five, arrived May  on a one-year’s permit as a nonimmigrant but then overstayed his permit; Snichnosu Yamasaki, age
thirty-two, was a ship’s deserter who obtained a birth certificate illegally
but, being afraid, soon destroyed it; and a few claimed to be married to
Canadian-born Japanese women who had borne them children.113
Between  and  September  seven investigators, including an
interpreter, led by Sergeant J.R. Paton, examined about  Japanese
workers employed in the Fraser Valley at the Haas Hop Gardens,
Chilliwack, and the Hulbert Hop Company Gardens, Sardis. A guard
was stationed to ensure that no workers escaped until the questioning
was completed. The report stated: “The huts in which the pickers live are
so situated that in order to keep the Japanese from getting away, it was
necessary to keep a patrol continually on the outskirts of the camp. The
fact that the work had to be done at night made it more difficult.” Nine
Japanese workers were taken to Vancouver for further questioning and,
of these, six were deported. Two were ship deserters and one had entered
Canada illegally. The Japanese foreperson at the Hulbert Hop Company
reported, to the patrol’s dismay, that ten or twelve Japanese workers had
anticipated the rcmp patrol and had suddenly vanished.114
Four rcmp officers, a Japanese interpreter, and an immigration official
spent several days in October  in the Okanagan Valley (Kelowna and
Vernon areas), driving some  miles and examining many Japanese
112
113
114
Corporal C.G. Fairman, Infractions of Immigration and other Acts by Japanese in British
Columbia,  October , rg , vol. , file , reel c -,, Immigration, ac.
Sergeant W.C. Grennan to Commanding Officer, N Division, Vancouver,  February ,
rg, Immigration, series -a-, vol. , reel c -, file , ac.
S.T. Wood, Infractions of Immigration and Other Acts by Japanese in British Columbia, 
September , rg , vol. , file , reel c -,, Immigration, ac.
Canada’s Struggle with Illegal Entry
59
at boarding houses, packing plants, and ranches. An informer claimed
that six or seven Japanese who were illegally in Canada had fled into the
bushes. The sergeant reported, “I patrolled the district, and though much
time was spent searching the barns, haystacks etc, in the locality where
the party were supposed to be, no results were obtained.” However,
they did eventually apprehend ten Japanese whom they escorted to
Vancouver for further investigation. His report observed, “The Japanese
in this district are scattered in ones and twos at the various fruit farms
in this area and it is difficult to locate them. No packing houses were
employing Japanese to any extent, and those that were, had reduced
their staff considerably before our arrival.”115
From the standpoint of rcmp and Immigration Branch officials, the
investigation yielded important results. It determined that over ,
Japanese migrants had entered the country illegally by . The means
they had used were several. The Yoshy smuggling scheme, of course, had
been the most widely used. However, others had come as stowaways,
some had entered as visitors and then had overstayed their time limit,
while yet others had deserted ship or landed surreptitiously away from
official ports of entry. While the investigation had apprehended some
of the illegal entrants, it was more successful, apparently, in convincing
a very large number to leave the country voluntarily rather than to face
deportation. Between  and ,  were deported for illegal entry.
Fortunately for forty-three, the Immigration Branch suspended their
deportation orders on compassionate grounds, usually because they had
married and had started families.116
Judging from the numbers of illegal entrants apprehended and
deported, the investigation had been most active in  when fifty-nine
were deported after having been required to appear before Immigration
Branch boards of inquiry.117 Although it continued into , the
investigation lost momentum and support. The Depression years were an
inauspicious time to mount a major provincewide investigation, and, like
other government departments and agencies during the R.B. Bennett
Conservative administration, immigration and the rcmp had tight
budgets. So in July  Wesley A. Gordon, the immigration minister,
wrote to J.H. MacBrien, the rcmp commissioner: “I beg to advise you it
has been decided to discontinue for the present the investigation being
115
116
117
Sergeant J.R. Paton, Infractions of Immigration and Other Acts by Japanese in BC, 
November , rg , vol. , file , Immigration Branch, ac.
Statement of Japanese Deported from Canada,  August  to  August , rg,
Immigration, series -a-, vol. , reel c -, file , ac.
House of Commons, Debates 1938, :.
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conducted at the Pacific Coast by members of your Force and officers of
the Department into the status of Japanese. The reason for this action
is the fact that there will not be funds available during the present fiscal
year for any further expenditure in this connection.”118 However, the
rcmp commissioner considered the investigations “very important” and
decided to complete them while absorbing the cost himself.119 Yet the
investigation was scaled back and finally terminated in .
REVIVING THE INVESTIGATION
Japan’s militarism and imperialistic expansion, and especially its invasion
of China and the infamous capture of Nanjing in , inflamed the
hostility of many whites towards the Japanese in British Columbia.120
Pringsheim states that the invasion “created a worldwide uproar of antiJapanese resentment, which was also reflected in Canada.”121 British
Columbia’s old fears of a Japanese attack reawakened, and rumours
spread of Japanese spies and illegal entrants. While senior government
officials in the Departments of Immigration, Fisheries, Justice, and
Immigration, as well as the rcmp, all agreed “that the reports of large
surreptitious entries [of Japanese] were unfounded,”122 Prime Minister
Mackenzie King eventually calculated that it would be prudent to take
some action. On  March  King announced to the House that he
would appoint a board of review “to organize and vitalize the search for
illegal immigrants into Canada” and “to convince the people of British
Columbia that the government is really taking the Oriental problem
seriously.”123
After in-camera hearings and rcmp -assisted investigations
throughout the province, the board, composed of Hugh Keenleyside
(external affairs) as chairperson, F.W. Taylor (district superintendent of
immigration, Vancouver), and Inspector G.W. Fish (rcmp, Vancouver),
concluded the following:
118
119
120
121
122
123
W.A. Gordon to J.H. MacBrien, Ottawa,  July , rg, Immigration, series -a-, vol.
, reel c -, file , ac.
J.H. MacBrien to Immigration Commissioner,  July , rg, Immigration, series -a-,
vol. , reel c -, file , ac.
How the “menace” from Japan inflamed the west coast is thoroughly investigated by Roy,
The Oriental Question, chaps.  and . Its impact on evolving Canadian-Japanese diplomatic
relations is examined in Meehan, The Dominion and the Rising Sun.
Pringsheim, Neighbours across the Pacific, .
Investigation of Alleged Illegal Entry of Japanese into British Columbia,  February ,
rg, External Affairs, series a-, vol. , reel t --, file , pt.  -, ac.
House of Commons, Debates 1938, :.
Canada’s Struggle with Illegal Entry
61
Unfortunately the situation in British Columbia is complicated by
the circulation of rumours which have little or no proven substance
but are disseminated assiduously as records of fact. The resulting
picture which has been built up in the minds of many of the people of
British Columbia is one in which well organized gangs of smugglers
run boatloads of Japanese across the Pacific, land them in the dark
of night on the west coast of the Queen Charlotte Islands or of
Vancouver Island, whence they rapidly find their way into the fishing,
agricultural, or industrial life of the Province. While this picture is
today false both in detail and in substance, the public mind in British
Columbia was made susceptible and was prepared for its reception
by the undoubted fact that between the years  and , and
particularly between  and , many Japanese did enter Canada
illegally.124
Evidently, the Yoshy smuggling scheme and illegal entry came back to
haunt the Japanese community as the Japan “menace” appeared ever
more threatening. Yet, of the , Japanese questioned by the board in
, almost all – , – were found to be in Canada legally.125 Members
of the board, claimed Keenleyside, believed that “the most deplorable
aspect of the situation in the province was the way in which the
politicians (at various levels) and other people in the public eye persisted
in making allegations about illegal entry, espionage, unfair competition,
and other offences with no substantiation for their accusations.”126
Unfortunately, the board’s findings did little to change the situation.
Keenleyside lamented: “the results of our work [had] little value in
reducing the growing hostility toward the Japanese residents.”127 Indeed,
the extensive media coverage of the investigation probably heightened
public suspicions about the small Japanese minority.
CONCLUSIONS
The Yoshy smuggling racket and Japanese illegal migrants in British
Columbia during the interwar years reveal the darker side of Canada’s
often celebrated immigration history. Canada’s tradition of illegal
entry, particularly challenging on its west coast, demonstrates that
124
125
126
127
Board of Review Report,  December , p. , rg, External Affairs, series a -, vol. ,
reel t -, file , pt.  -, ac. Roy provides an excellent overview of the Board of Review’s
work in The Oriental Question,  - .
Keenleyside, Memoirs, .
Ibid.
Ibid.
62
bc studies
global economic inequities, combined with the trend of nineteenthand twentieth-century nation-states to assert a monopoly on movement
across their borders,128 frequently tempted migrants to disregard
legal entry procedures. This temptation was regularly exploited by
unscrupulous and immoral individuals – private persons, government
officials, and criminals – eager to facilitate illegal movements for
personal gain. Since illegal immigration is an important, fascinating,
and persistent dimension of Canada’s immigration history, it should be
carefully charted, notwithstanding the challenges posed.
Yoshy and his collaborators were eager to exploit any young
Japanese migrants tempted to enter British Columbia illegally.
Greed was the fundamental motivation, but it eventually brought
Yoshy down. His clandestine human smuggling ring underscores
the trouble corrupt individuals and practices can cause, especially for
ethnic groups struggling to survive in the face of white hostility and
strained international relations. The pre-Second World War Japanese
community in British Columbia was plagued not only by the economic
troubles of the Great Depression but also by real and rumoured stories
of illegal immigration. Many whites concluded, especially after the
Manchurian Crisis in  and the Japanese invasion of China in ,
that the BC Japanese and their homeland were a growing menace to
peace and security. Unfortunately, the Yoshy scheme and the presence
of Japanese illegal migrants caused the vulnerable Japanese community
in the s to be the object of harrowing and disagreeable police
investigations.
128
Torpey, Invention of the Passport, .